Subgrouping Literature and language use

8 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE Standard Muna | gh | h | r | Tiworo | h | h | r | Siompu | | | r | Gumas | | | h | Examples: Standard Muna | ghuse | dahu | rindi | foroghu Tiworo | huse | dahu | rindi | forohu Siompu | use | dau | rindi | forou Gumas | use | dau | hindi | fohou rain dog cold drink Other phonological differences concern, for example, palatalization of t before i and u, implosion of the alveolar stop and the existence of nc as a phoneme.

1.2.3. Subgrouping

Muna is an Austronesian language belonging to the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of that family Blust 1980. Within this branch the internal relationships are far from clear; in fact even the existence of the branch as one subgroup within Austronesian has not been firmly established. The first attempt at subgrouping the languages of Sulawesi was made by Esser 1938. One of the twelve groups he distinguishes is the Muna-Buton group, which includes Muna and Wolio. This subgrouping has remained unchallenged until recently; current debate focuses on the place of Wolio and Wotu a language in South Sulawesi Noorduyn 1987; Sirk 1988. Obviously it is much too early to make definite statements. In the first place, the languages of Buton are extremely poorly known, with the exception of Wolio Anceaux 1952, 1987. Secondly, a comparison of the languages in the Muna-Buton group cannot ignore the languages of central and southeast Sulawesi, the Kaili-Pamona group together with Bungku-Mori-Tolaki Mills 1981:60. In Van den Berg 1988, I have made an attempt to reconstruct the phonology and the free pronouns of Proto-Muna, the nearest relatives of which are the Munic languages on Buton, such as Pancana, Busoa, Kaimbulawa and possibly Cia-Cia. More research is needed before a more detailed subgrouping can be made.

1.2.4. Literature and language use

Unlike Wolio, the official language of the sultanate on Buton, Muna has never known a writing system. Written literature is therefore of very recent date and almost exclusively of oral origin. As in other traditional cultures in Indonesia, the oral literature comprises a wide range of forms and subject matter. Prose stories include legends, folktales, fables and romances. Under the heading of poetry can be reckoned such forms as kabhanti and kantola. Pogala is a kind of traditional drama Lanayo 1979. A good anthology of Muna oral literature would be a very fruitful and worthwhile project. It is generally felt that the influence of modern life and the mass media has a negative effect on the creation and maintenance of these traditional forms. Yet some attempts can be seen to counter this movement, such as the release of a cassette a few years ago with traditional and new songs in Muna Wuna liwuku. 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 9 As for language use, quite a sharp distinction needs to be drawn between the capital Raha and the villages in the interior. In the villages Muna is dominant, Indonesian being mainly restricted to the schools. Everybody is fluent in Muna, but presumably a large percentage do not speak Indonesian. In Raha this situation is reversed. Indonesian is dominant, even in families where both parents are from Muna. The percentage of children born in Raha of Muna parents but not fluent in Muna is probably quite high. Foreigners living in Raha Chinese, Bugis, Javanese very rarely learn to speak Muna, a fact which the Muna people themselves attribute to the difficulty of their language. While Muna is certainly not an easy language to learn mainly because of its complex inflectional morphology, the socio-linguistic situation in Raha is probably an equally important factor. All over Muna education is in Indonesian, with Muna used as the language of instruction in the lower forms. No educational material is available in Muna, but at present a Muna language team is trying to change this situation by producing material in the local language. There are also plans for a dictionary and an anthology of Muna prose and poetry.

1.3. Methodology and framework